Should Have Seen it Coming
by CelticDaemonWitch
Summary: Barda grumbles... er, talks to Sharn about Lief and Jasmine's sort-of, not-really relationship. Spoilerish one-shot.


A/N: I am not quite as happy with this one as I am with the other two. It just does not seem quite as... deep, I guess. I try to include as many observations I have made from the books into my fanfictions, and this one did not seem to have as many as I thought it would, despite the time it took me to write it. 

Also, I just cannot picture Sharn as Lief's mother very easily XD So she does not seem quite as ... motherly as I was aiming for in this fic. Oh, and right. Mucho spoilers for Return to Del.

Disclaimer: I do not own Deltora Quest, or any of its characters. I do not even own the plot of this story, because there is none!! XD

Pairing(s): Implied Lief/Jasmine.

Last note. I have only read through Isle of the Dead. Do not flame me for what I do not know, for they will only be forwarded to the kitchen to make chicken fajitas!

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Should Have Seen it Coming

a short story

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In the quiet of the palace kitchens, Sharn placed her needle down and inspected her fingertips. They were as white as the marble spires of Tora, and very pruned, as if she had just stepped out of a hot bath. Of course, they always looked that that these days.

She sighed to herself, and put the thought of her increasing age out of her mind, as was her way.

She picked up the needle and resumed her mending. She was grateful she had the time for it, really, even if it was such a monotonous task. Then again, there were many things she was grateful for.

"Sharn!"

Interuptions just did not happen to be one of them.

"Come in, Barda," she said dryly, as the big man burst through the doors of the kitchens without any warning and strode over to her. She did not even look up, but judging by how sharp his heels thudded against the stones, he was furious. Or greatly annoyed. Or perhaps nothing was wrong at all. With Barda, it was hard to tell. "What news from the forge?"

There was a long silence in which Barda seemed to rail his thoughts. From under her eyelashes, Sharn saw his hands gripping the chair across from her so tightly his knuckles were white. Then, with a groan, he sank into said chair and muttered, "One of these days, I am going to save us some trouble and strangle that foolish son of yours myself."

Sharn arched an eyebrow, and kept silent. Which just annoyed Barda further.

"It does not help that the plain fact is every time he does something dangerous and foolhardy, thus scaring the living daylights out of myself and Jasmine, it usually ends up being the right thing to do. So I cannot complain, but it aggravates me so. He does it just to strain my heart, I know it!"

He drew a breath. "And Jasmine! By all accounts, she is worse! And when the two of them are put together... it is a wonder I am not dead yet!"

Still dipping her needle in an out of the fabric in her lap, Sharn said, "It sounds much like the stories Endon would tell me about him and Jarred in their youth. Or, more precisely, about Jarred. Only about a hundred times worse."

Her words were level, but Barda knew her well enough to know what sadness lay behind her calm exterior. Sadness for her husband whom she had to bury too early. Sadness for Jarred, who lost his identity in a single fight long ago in the Shadow Arena, and became the dark, forboding Doom. Sadness for Anna, the sweet-faced woman she had known for a very short time, but too had carried her kingdom's future in her womb.

She rid herself of those thoughts as well. They would get her nowhere. Forcing a smile but not yet looking up, she inquired, "What trouble has Lief managed to get himself into?"

Barda's mind immediatly flashed back to the quiet warmth that had encompassed the forge and the cottage behind it when he had visited it earlier. He had strode through the door, without knocking, as he had done many times before. He especially remembered how Lief and Jasmine had leapt away from each other, tousled and guilty, dark cheeks and abused lips giving testimony to what he had interrupted. More than that, he could not forget how angry he had gotten at them. Which was quite strange, considering they had not been doing anything _wrong_, exactly.

He voiced none of his thoughts aloud, but Sharn knew him well enough to have guessed the truth simply by the multitude of expressions that crossed Barda's usually impassive face. Her fingers stilled on her knitting, and after the pause stretched on long enough, she murmured, "He will never let her go, you know."

Barda said nothing.

Sharn at last lifted her head. "You have protected him all his life from whatever his father and I could not prepare him for, and I am deeply grateful for that. But you cannot protect him now, Barda, any more than Doom can protect Jasmine. Not from what they make together."

The big man leaned forward on the table, steepling his fingers, brow furrowed in thought. He sighed wearily, "I was one of the three. I share all the same memories that make us so different from everyone else. But between Lief and Jasmine, those experiences become... I do not know. Something bigger. Something I am excluded from." Sharn was about to interupt, but he carried on, "They hold hands as if letting go will make them forget something. I have not noticed that they do not wish to hold _my_ hand. There always seems to be more to _their_ story, and sometimes it is like I do not even exist at all! But... it is not like I can ask them to just stop being the way they are."

"They are in love."

"They are _fools_ in love," the familiar growl crept back into Barda's voice. "I dread to think what would happen should they ever marry."

"They trust you to point out to them how reckless their decisions can be, as you always have done," Sharn told him, smiling secretively to herself. She had taken up her knitting again. A tantalyzing smell was drifting over to them from the ovens, for suppertime was nearing. "Whatever you may think, or however closer they are to each other than to you, they still need you.

"You are still the three."

Barda just grunted.

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la fin

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"This is my greatest fear: that my life will be divided into 'before you' and 'after you'."

((A/N: Gotta love poor, neglected Barda XD))


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